Someone started this thread suggesting people post links to bootlegs. I don't want people requesting or posting direct links, as it might get me into all kinds of legal trouble.

But then it occurred to me that people might want to discuss their favourite bootlegs, so feel free to do so!

We live in the real world, and let's not pretend certain files aren't out there. I don't mind people linking out to sites (Blogger etc) that discuss and provide download files. I'd rather the those sites took the responsibility of linking to the download files.

HOWEVER, I DO NOT WANT DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINKS POSTED ON THIS SITE. Hope that's clear!

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17 August 20125.36am

SatanHimself

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Back in the olden days of the 'aughts', I traded bootlegs pretty actively, and most of those boots were Beatle-related.

I eventually whittled down the boots to a manageable collection of "essential" discs to compliment the 2009 remasters.

I'm a big fan of the album-by-album Silent Sea series, which presented a 2-disc collection of sessions, outtakes, alternate mixes and whanot for each album. Here's a link to what I'm talking about: http://bootlegzone.com/files.p.....038;pub=30

Dr. Ebbett produced superb needledrops of pretty much everything, but even he admitted that the '09 remasters are the final word. But the few odds and ends that they don't cover are still awesome, like the two Glyn Johns 'Get Back' versions and the aborted 'Sessions' album, to name just a couple.

The wonderful 'Artifacts' from Big Music is a 14-disc collecting the Beatles' career (twice over) and one disc each to showcase each solo career's best outtakes and rarities.

What am I missing? You tell me!

E is for 'Ergent'.

17 August 20129.42am

meanmistermustard

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Love bootlegs. Years ago i had around 100 but not now.

Hobnails updated bbc collection Unsurpassed Broadcasts is the definative source for those (tho a few upgrades have since come out), 14 discs i think, and Helter Skelter's ongoing Back To Basics series is hopefully the definitive source for studio outtakes and alternate mixes.

As for fave bootlegs, its been so long ago. Anthology Plus and its follow ups were fabulous really enjoyable additions to the Anthologys. Artifacts I & II were a goldmine - tho i didnt stray into the solo years. The first bootlegs i bought were the first 4 albums in stereo and the Get Back album all in digipacks and all with bonus tracks (that was in '96 just after the anthology's had been released) so always have a soft spot for those. I cant think of what else i had.

I wouldnt pay for bootlegs now, everythings is online and free, and the best ones are by fans for fans who are creating and trading them for free, you'd be mad to pay money for them.

Don’t make your love suffer insecurities, trade the baggage of self to set another one free.
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17 August 201210.19am

GeorgeTSimpson

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I've got glyn john's get back compilations from beatlessource (of course this is not the right place to talk about where you can get back bootlegs) I uploaded the last glyn johns compilation on youtube because it wasn't on youtube that time. I think it's interesting to hear what let it be should have been, but it was one of the best decisions in music history to let phil spector "re-produce" the album. His version of let it be (which is of course the best known version) is just million times better than the glyn johns version. Still I love that bootleg just to see what the wanted to release

Once there was a way to get back homewards. Once there was a way to get back home; sleep pretty darling do not cry. And I will sing a lullaby

17 August 20128.30pm

SatanHimself

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That's funny, because I was just listening to 'Get Back' in the car. Yeah, I don't know where Johns was going with his assemblies, but he really didn't pick very good takes and the flow of the album was pretty clunky.

I'm strictly in the camp that says Phil Spector did the world a service with his assembly, tinkering and overdubs.

E is for 'Ergent'.

23 August 20129.54pm

SatanHimself

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Has anybody checked out the Purple Chick 'deluxe' versions of the regular albums?

It's essentially what I hoped the 2009 remasters would be: The albums, along with the singles released at the time and well as the mono versions (where applicable).

Purple Chick expanded on that idea by adding every other alternate mix commercially released, as well as multiple bonus discs of sessions and early takes.

I'm still a bit disappointed in having to grab 'Past Masters' in order to hear "Paperback Writer" and "Rain", when they very easily could have been extra tracks on 'Rubber Soul', helping bridge the musical development of the group.

Once there was a way to get back homewards. Once there was a way to get back home; sleep pretty darling do not cry. And I will sing a lullaby

23 August 201210.25pm

meanmistermustard

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I had all of those and they are wonderful. A great way to compile a near complete collection. A few things puzzled me tho like maybe it was my copy but the Around The Beatles audio was the soundtrack tape with audience on top and not the clean tape which is out there.

However like everything already they are a little outdated. The Back To Basics collections (so far up to Rubber Soul) use more up to date technology for remastering, include tracks which have either recently appeared or are in better quality (eg Besame Mucho where you can hear the song fade as it originally did),and have more alternate mixes. Also the BBC, Hamburg and Decca recordings have all improved upon recently.

However its not massive upgrades and its down to personal preference so if folks find them and are looking for a starting point dont turn your nose up as many of them are still the best out there ie the Live concert series.

Don’t make your love suffer insecurities, trade the baggage of self to set another one free.
('Paper Skin' - Kendall Payne)

Once there was a way to get back homewards. Once there was a way to get back home; sleep pretty darling do not cry. And I will sing a lullaby

24 August 20126.43am

kedame

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Novice bootlegger here. How exactly does one acquire such recordings? You know, if one were inclined to, say, download them?

"You can manicure a cat but can you caticure a man?"
John Lennon- Skywriting by Word of Mouth

24 August 201210.28am

meanmistermustard

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Most folks go to torrent sites which are mostly safe to use but you have to know what youre doing - others will be able to tell you what to do with those im sure, i havent a clue as i honetly havent used one. One of the most popular and biggest torrent sites, Demonoid, was closed down recently by the Law Authorities so users are having to find alternate places.

Another way is beatles blogspots and forums where fans post/share albums and or single tracks - like vonbontees remixes. Most blogspots have links to others so it becomes easy to look about. Its more about searching to find where you are happy.

The biggest thing to remember is to be careful where you go and what you download as otherwise you might be overrun by viruses - it does happen. Im sure you have anti-virus software but scan every folder you download before opening no matter where you get it from. It does sound paranoid but a 1 minute scan can spare you hours and days of the nightmare viruses bring.

Don’t make your love suffer insecurities, trade the baggage of self to set another one free.
('Paper Skin' - Kendall Payne)

24 August 201210.00pm

SatanHimself

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kedame said
Novice bootlegger here. How exactly does one acquire such recordings? You know, if one were inclined to, say, download them?

When I was bootlegging, I did through http://bootlegzone.com/ . It's kind of old-school, where you make up a list of your CDs for trade and then go through other peoples' lists and contract them for trades. It was fun, but a lot of work.

MMM is right about going the torrent way. If you're unfamiliar with torrents, they can be a bit intimidating at first. Once you get the hang of them and know how to spot fake links and such then it becomes pretty easy.

E is for 'Ergent'.

24 August 201210.12pm

GeorgeTSimpson

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Alright i downloaded some parts (mainly the first ones, I want to download them all) of a/b road and it's my new favourite bootleg

Once there was a way to get back homewards. Once there was a way to get back home; sleep pretty darling do not cry. And I will sing a lullaby

24 August 201210.22pm

SatanHimself

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That is a LOT of material there. The largest collection I ever had of that stuff was the 17-disc '30 Days' set, which compiled the "best" of those sessions.

I decided that maybe I'd supplement my official discs with the Purple Chick deluxe sets, just for fun, so I'm downloading a couple now. Not too many seeds, so it's pretty slow...

E is for 'Ergent'.

24 August 201210.32pm

meanmistermustard

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I dont go near torrents. Would love to get the Twickenham discs of A/B Road as i have the Apple sessions but am happy to wait. Thirty Days is a great bootleg but i didnt bothered to take the Apple tracks since i had them already.

The Get Back sessions are a real slog at times, i got thru 5/7ths of the 31st January but hitting the numerous Let It Be takes killed me.

Don’t make your love suffer insecurities, trade the baggage of self to set another one free.
('Paper Skin' - Kendall Payne)

25 August 20125.04am

kedame

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I know how to do torrents. I have a lot of solo Paul torrents, and I regularly use my anti-virus. I can say I have gotten pretty adept at cleaning out viruses, too, because I'm not always as careful as I should be.

I just didn't know how Beatleg worked, but it sounds like too much trouble for someone with almost no time on her hands.

"You can manicure a cat but can you caticure a man?"
John Lennon- Skywriting by Word of Mouth

They have something like 125 Beatles boots (including a bunch of the Purple Chick titles), and tons more. I tried downloading some .zip files, but I can't seem to get them to unpack properly. The site suggests using Stuffit Expander, but I couldn't get it to do anything with the files.

As for favorite Beatles ones, I love the 4 complete Hollywood Bowl shows (2 from '64, 2 from '65), the complete rooftop gig, the final gig in SF in '66, the Japanese shows in '66, and probably my favorite live performance, Sweden in October '64...pristine sound and they were kicking ass and taking names that night!

How do you have 2 Hollywood Bowls for '64? They only played there the once. 23 August. If they sound like different performances, one ain't the Hollywood Bowl. Love the Great Dane Complete BBC Sessions which I got on DVD-ROM years ago.

Great and easy source for bootlegs is YouTube. None of this torrent stuff. Past few weeks I've got dozens from there. The Red Light's On [3-disc] is especially good. Also found Revolution [take 20] - a complete revelation, and maybe the best still-unreleased track out there.

Easy to rip the audio. There's a free music editor, Audacity, follow through all the downloads (comes in several parts), and you can just drop a video on and it rips the audio (into mp3, wma, virtually whatever you want). I've got Twickenham Sessions [8-disc], three Hollywood Bowls, Candlestick Park, Sweden '63, both Budokan, 2 Glyn Johns' Get Back, 1960 home recordings [2 disc], Washington Coliseum, Melbourne Festival Hall, Lennon's home demos 1975-1980 [8+ hours that I've turned into a 7-disc], Star Club, the Esher Demos, and many stand-alone tracks.

Only thing I'd warn is grab them while you can. Found a terrific channel a few weeks ago, just after I'd spent a night downloading the Lennon demos, seemed to be a Beatles and Queen fan, and had lots of great Beatle bootlegs, planned to make that my next download session, went to it after about 5 hours sleep and it had been pulled for copyright infringement. Can only presume it was the Queen stuff because much Beatles stuff seems to have been up for years.

I should note here that I am not advocating the downloading of illegal material, although it does appear to me that much of The Beatles material on YouTube is not strictly legal. I am merely pointing out a way to pull the audio from strictly legal posts, if it also happens to work on illegal, well... that's up to you.

"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty

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